Chapter 2

It's coming on Christmas
They're cutting down trees
They're putting up reindeer
And singing songs of joy and peace
I wish I had a river
I could skate away on

"River", Joni Mitchell

The alarm went off and she slapped it quiet quickly before it could wake Tim up. She held still for a long moment, but he didn't move. Good, she thought, sitting up slowly. He was curled in on himself with his arms wrapped over his head like usual. She shook her head, wondering how on earth he found that to be a comfortable position. Cider poked her sleepy head up over Tim's side to look at her.

"Shh," she breathed, holding a finger up to her lips. The cat looked at her reproachfully, but settled down back into the space between Tim's elbows and knees. Calleigh smiled as she carefully maneuvered around him to get out of bed. This is easier in his bed, she mused as she found her bathrobe. His bed wasn't pushed against a wall and she was usually on the outside. Tiptoeing out of the room, she congratulated herself for getting up without waking him up. He was easier to wake up these days, which was both good and bad. Good, because it meant he wasn't as dependent on medication to sleep. Bad because he still desperately needed the sleep- probably more now than he did before, because he was growing more active again. He'd do things now like go to the grocery store, or go to lunch with Alexx. The increased activity wore him out; even with going to bed a good two hours before she did, and sleeping at least an hour later, he still tended to need an afternoon nap.

But the activity was good. It made her a little bit more hopeful. He'd been so out of it for so long that she had despaired of him ever recovering. He wouldn't be the same- none of them were, really- but he'd still be Tim.

She sighed as she looked at the calendar on the fridge while waiting for her coffee to finish brewing. Two weeks until Christmas. Usually, December was her favorite month. She usually looked forward to the holidays. But this year, she didn't feel like she had the energy to spare. She'd be working the holidays- it was her turn, anyway, despite the fact she didn't have any leave left on the year. She wouldn't get to go to Louisiana this year- maybe in February, for her birthday, she'd told her mother. Her mother was not very happy with that plan. Usually, she could manage to steal a couple of days to go visit, even if it was her turn to work, and her mother was unhappy that she hadn't managed to do so this year. But her mother didn't know that she usually stole those days because Tim offered to work for her. He always offered to work for whoever was stuck with Christmas, because he didn't go home and said he'd probably go into work anyway, so someone else might as well have the day off. And Eric usually offered to take a day as well, since he already was home, and could easily escape the celebrating to work a shift or two. There was no one to offer this year. And she would have felt bad about taking anyone other than Tim or Eric up on the offer anyway.

At least this year, Tim would get to have a real Christmas; not having to work had to be better than working alone like he usually did. He'd told her it wasn't a big deal- Alexx always had him over on Christmas Eve for dinner and that was plenty enough celebrating for him. But she suspected that like many other things, Tim had convinced himself he didn't care to cover up the fact that he did, in fact, care a great deal. Since living with him, she'd come to realize that despite the fact that he tried so hard to push everyone away and be seen as a loner, in reality he hated being alone. It had made her wonder what else she had thought was true, but was really Tim trying to convince himself that he didn't care about something.

She poured herself a cup of coffee and put bread in the toaster as her cell phone rang. Sighing, she retrieved it from the charger on the kitchen counter and answered it. "Duquesne."

"It's me," Horatio said on the other end. "Sorry to call so early, but I need you as soon as possible. We've got a DB outside of a dorm at UM."

"Finals week gone bad?" she asked, glancing again at the calendar.

"Wouldn't surprise me. Anyway, I know you probably just got up, but we really have to get this situated as soon as we can," he said.

"No problem. I'll be there in about ten, fifteen minutes?" she said.

"Sounds good," he agreed. "See you then."

She sighed as she hung up and crept back into the bedroom for clothes. Tim was still asleep with Cider. She hurried into her clothing and dumped her coffee into a travel mug. The toast popped up just then and she grabbed it and buttered it while shoving her feet into her shoes. She scooped up her breakfast, and walked out into the living room to retrieve her gun from the locked end table drawer. Grabbing her bag, she slipped out the front door, trying not to bang the screen door as she went.

Traffic wasn't too terrible yet, and Tim didn't live all that far away from UM. She barely had time to finish her toast before she was pulling her Jeep alongside the Hummer. "Hey," she called out to Horatio, who was standing with his hands on his hips.

"Morning," he said, turning to face her. "Alexx should be here any minute."

"Ok," she said. She bent down and retrieved a pair of gloves from his kit. "What do we have?"

"No ID yet," Horatio said. "A young man found him as he was coming home from an all night library session. He admits to touching the body; apparently our victim was lying on his side, and it wasn't obvious he was dead." He nodded over to where Yelena was talking to a kid wearing a ball cap. "He did, however, call 911. Seems cooperative, if shaken."

"Well, I don't blame him. Does he know the victim?" she asked.

Horatio shook his head. "No. But there's approximately 1,500 people living in this dorm, so it's possible the victim does live here."

"Right," she sighed. "I'm going to start looking for bullets. Unless you want me to take the photos?"

"No, I did the photos already," he said. "You look for bullets and other trace. I'll wait for Alexx."

"Sounds good," she said, starting to walk her usual search grid. She heard, more than saw, Alexx arrive and tuned it out. Horatio had the body, she had the rest of the evidence.

After about twenty minutes, she'd finished her grid and came up with two bullets and some random unidentified objects for Trace. "All righty then," she muttered as she walked back to where Horatio and Yelena were standing.

"What do we have?" Horatio asked.

"Two 9mm's and a bunch of randomness," she said, holding up the evidence envelopes. "Nothing really for prints, finger or otherwise."

"Probably wouldn't be useable even if we did have them. Too many kids around," Horatio said, nodding. "Are the bullets usable?" he asked.

"One of them is a bit beat up, but the other should be fine," she nodded. "Do we have an ID yet?"

"Wallet's gone," Horatio said, shaking his head.

"Lovely," she sighed. "Well, I'll take these back to the lab and see what I can do with them."

"Keep me posted," Horatio nodded as he slipped on his sunglasses.

"Will do," she said, smiling at him before turning to walk back to her Jeep. "Happy Holidays," she sighed as she turned on the ignition and headed for the lab.